Road Trips Can Be Hazardous to One's Health
by Lisa Moulton
Summary: (Edited 9-11; A Power RangersDiagnosis Murder crossover) Tommy and Lisa take a trip to Malibu to visit Lisa's friends at Community General Hospital. Unfortunately, the visit does not go without a hitch.
1. Getting Her Up Is the Hard Part

**Disclaimers and Whatnot: _This story is Mary Sue. It's your choice to read it. _Both "Diagnosis Murder" and "Power Rangers" don't belong to me. DM belongs to CBS, Viacom, Paramount, and PAX (I believe). PR belongs to Hiam Saban and Shuki Levy (and, quite possibly, ABCFamily and Fox). The character of Lisa, however, is mine. Like you don't know that by now. Fans of the shows, please disregard – even though there's no mention of anything in this story, because with AL (Alien Lisa/Lisa) there, it never happened – the Kimberly/Katharine thing with Tommy and any romantic interests Jesse Travis had for reasons already stated. For the curious, this story takes place from ****June 23, 2001**** (a Saturday) to ****July 16, 2001**** (a Monday). If you don't understand something, just go with it (or ask me and I'll try to explain). Eventually, I'll have stories to explain the stories. ^^ **

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, the perfect day for a road trip. It was always best to get an early start, even on such short trips such as the one the occupants of the apartment were about to take, but one of said occupants was still sound asleep. Naturally, it was the one who'd planned the whole trip in the first place.

The California sun broke through the curtains as the warm morning breeze drifted into the room. It caressed the hair of the woman sleeping in one of the two beds. However, she only welcomed it with a low groan and turning her back on the window.

Into the room walked former Power Ranger Tommy Oliver – 6 foot even, long brown hair pulled into a ponytail, brown eyes, wearing blue jeans and a red t-shirt – carrying a chocolate frosted donut in one hand and a glass of soda in the other. He noticed the form in the bed pulling the blanket over her face in the universal gesture for "Go away and let me sleep", but he wasn't going to let that deter him.

"Lisa," he called softly, setting down the food on the nightstand, the donut on top of the cup. "Time to get up." He sat on the edge of the bed, bent and kissed her cheek.

"Mrrph…" the one named Lisa muttered, sticking her head underneath the pillow.

"Come on, Lisa," he said. "Wake up."

"G'way," she said, her voice muffled from being under the pillow. "Saturday. Wanna sleep. Sleep good."

"Hey, this was _your_ idea."

The only response he got was a mutter that sounded suspiciously like "leave me alone", but he let it slide. Lisa was always cranky in the morning, but this trip _was_ her idea, after all.

"Lisa…"

"Tired…"

He chuckled and shook her shoulder. "You know, I put these things in the fridge for you." Tommy indicated the donut even though his girlfriend couldn't see. "It'll soften by the time you eat it."

"Go 'way!" she whined, trying to bury herself deeper in the blankets.

Now, Tommy sighed and lifted the pillow off her face. She groaned and yanked the blankets up.

"Oh, well," he said flippantly, "I guess you don't want to visit your friends, then."

There was a long, low whine.

He swung his legs up onto the bed and used the pilfered pillow as a backrest. "I bet Jesse's really looking forward to seeing you again."

Grunt.

"And Mark, too, probably. Don't you think?"

Grunt.

"Of course, you haven't told them you're coming. So it won't matter if you just sleep the rest of today. We'll go see 'em another time." He patted her head and stood to replace the pillow, but Lisa had lifted her arm and pushed it away.

"You're annoying, you know that?" she asked, yawning.

"I love you, too," said Tommy. "Now, get up."

Lisa rolled over and squinted at her watch. "It's nine in the morning, Tommy," she whined.

"_And_ it takes forty minutes to drive to Malibu _without traffic. So come on."_

She groaned.

"Come on or I'll drag you out."

"Mrrrph," she grunted, then grabbed her glasses and climbed out of bed.

"That's my girl," Tommy said, leaning over and kissing her forehead. "I'll let you get dressed. But if you're not done in five minutes, I'll dress you myself."

He walked out leaving Lisa standing in her shorts and t-shirt, giving a dirty look to his departing back.

_End part one._


	2. Not A Morning Person

**See part one for disclaimers. I really do own Lisa's items of clothing mentioned. ^^ I love my crappy black shorts. *grin* I also wear my hair in the ponytail-split-braid sometimes.**

Just under the wire, Lisa emerged from the bedroom munching on the donut, dressed in white cotton shorts and solid light blue t-shirt, much different than the black nylon shorts and novelty shirt she'd worn to bed. Her waist length brown hair, however, could stand a good brushing.

Tommy looked up from the magazine he was reading. "Hey," he said. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

She gave him a look and gulped down the soda he'd brought her. Tommy just smiled. After a relationship of almost eleven years, he was used to her little quirks.

He was also used to the fact that his girlfriend was, for lack of a better word, an alien. Hey, he'd seen stranger things as a Power Ranger.

Lisa was not, however, the stereotypical "little green man (woman in her case) from Mars". She looked like a perfectly normal human girl, until she brings out her wings, that is. There was also that unnatural fire that shone in her brown eyes whenever she was angry of someone she loved was in trouble.

Her home planet was named after its sun – Alnilam. It's located approximately 1340 light-years from earth and is very easy to find, as it's the middle star in Orion's belt.

Tommy and Lisa met in 1991 when he'd had a terrible case of the flu, but that's another story.

"You'd better go brush your hair and finish getting ready," Tommy said. "We have to leave soon."

She grunted and headed for the bathroom, adjusting the silver chain around her neck, off of which her ankh charm hung. "What's it like out?" she called through the door and over running water.

"Supposed to be hitting ninety today." Tommy called back.

Lisa didn't answer, but, after a few minutes, she exited with her hair in a ponytail, split into two separate braids. She often wore it like that on hot days because it kept the hair off her neck.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied, yawning.

Tommy handed her her favorite red jacket. She was never without it, even on some of the hottest days.

Together, carrying their luggage, they made their way to Tommy's car. Now Lisa was a little more excited.

They were on their way to Malibu.

_End part two._


	3. Road Trip!

**See part one for disclaimers and all that. I really do torture people with my singing. Heh.**

One downside to riding in a car with Lisa was that she liked to sing along with the radio. Tommy was used to that, as well, and it was better to let her go on instead of stopping her, because Lisa singing was better than Lisa complaining. Still, forty minutes of this may drive him crazy.

"Short trip," she said in between verses, grinning.

He chuckled. "_I'm_ crazy?"

Still smiling, she said, "You'd have to be to date me."

Tommy laughed and shook his head. It was one of their games to teach each other like that. It made their relationship fun.

When a song not worthy of a sing-along started to play, Lisa leaned back in her seat and stretched her arms.

He smiled. "I take it you're finally awake enough to look forward to seeing everyone again?"

"Yup!" she replied. "Thanks, Tommy."

She was talking about him agreeing to take the trip. He said, "No problem. They're my friends, too. And, hey, anything for you."

Lisa sighed, content. "Be great to see Jesse again," she said in a rather wistful voice. Then she cleared her throat and, as an afterthought, she added, "And Mark and Steve, of course."

Tommy just smiled. He wasn't jealous. He knew the list of Lisa's guys was just about endless (though Jesse hadn't become a guy just yet), and she loved them all equally and the same. There was no reason at all to be jealous. He just put his hand on her leg and squeezed gently.

"You know," she mused, "it's a pity we won't be hearing our song on the radio yet."

"Well," he replied, "when you first hear it in the future…" He let the sentence hang.

One of Lisa's powers was time travel.

"Why do you think I bought the single?" She reached into the bag at her feet and dug through it, finally pulling out a CD. Pausing to look at it, she muttered, "Why didn't this guy win?"

The singer was a man from North Carolina by the name of Clay Aiken. The song was entitled "This Is the Night". However, no one has heard of him yet, because his debut appearance had been on the second season of a television show whose first had just aired last Monday: _American Idol, a show that lets the viewing public vote for the next American pop star. Clay, unfortunately, hadn't won._

Lisa had never seen the show, bug she'd heard the song on the radio and fell in love with it. As an added bonus, Clay was one good-looking fellow. His picture was on the CD case. She'd filed away the song and it became hers and Tommy's.

She popped the CD into the car's player and let it play. Of course, she sang along and Tommy slipped one hand into hers. Lisa smiled and squeezed his hand. This trip was going to be great.

How little she knew.

_End part three._


End file.
